Demi Lovato is being written out of tween hit "Sonny with a Chance" so the previously untarnished TV and singing star can enter rehab for “emotional and physical issues,” according to several reports.
As first reported in Variety, “Sonny” will begin shooting of season three on time in January with a workaround plan: a focus on "So Random," the show-within-the-show that forms its premise.
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The shift allows the 18-year-old Lovato “the time she needs to get well, without distraction or pressure,” the Disney Channel said in a statement to Variety. “We extend our ongoing support to Demi and her family as she works to overcome personal issues.”
Precisely what those issues are, the singer isn't officially saying. Since TMZ first reported that she would drop out of the Jonas Brothers' tour and seek treatment, the tabloids have been after Lovato with tales of alcohol abuse, cocaine use and cutting.
Lovato “decided to take personal responsibility for her actions and seek help,” her representative told People.com
Lovato is one of Disney's hottest crossover properties; under Disney's Hollywood Records label, her second album, “Here We Go Again,” debuted No. 1 on the Billboard 200 in summer of '09 (her first had reached No. 2).
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And prior to reports of her breakdown, she had never before been touched by scandal; her public relationship with fellow Disney poprocker Joe Jonas was the extent of her celebrity rap sheet.
Now the two are going their separate ways, as are Lovato and "Sonny" — for now.
